For many years, the food industry has employed x-ray scanning devices and detectors to inspect cans or containers for foreign or undesirable material to ensure the safety and quality of their products. Often, each type of container presents its own unique challenges for optimizing the accuracy of the detection of foreign material. Containers are built using a variety of materials, and come in many shapes and sizes.
One device in the art that has been specifically optimized for the detection of foreign material within a bottle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,106,827. Here the invention utilizes one or two X-ray sources and one detector array positioned so that some of the x-rays travel in a direction that is approximately tangential to a maximum slope of a bulge of on a bottom of a container.
Such an approach, however, is of limited use when detecting foreign material in containers such as cans. Here, various features of the cans including seams, pull-tops and folds can confound the detection process, and decrease the overall effectiveness of an apparatus.
So, what is needed is an apparatus and method for detecting foreign material in a container including cans which can effectively identify and detect foreign material despite confounding features of the container such as seams, pull-tops and folds.